Update #5 - Jocotillo

Friday, December 30

On Friday, the whole team traveled by bus to the village of Jocotillo (the one I went to the day before).

Pineapple plantation

(Workers can earn up to $5/day)

The team bagged and passed out corn and beans to many women and children at the local church.

While some handled the food, others prayed over people who wanted it. The pain and suffering of the community is so heavy. We prayed for a woman with stomach cancer. We prayed for a woman who was filled with sadness. We prayed for a teenage girl whose dad was a drunkard. We prayed for a grandma who’s 36 year old son died the day before from diabetes. He left behind 4 girls (mom is not in the picture) and now grandma will be taking care of them with no job or food or house.

Most of the people in the village live in a combination of tarps and sticks, occasionally some corrugated metal.

(Before: a family was living in this last year)

(After: last year, the structure on the left was built for the family for $850)

“M” one of the dads from the farm trip, has been building small houses in this community for 15 years. He showed me before and after pictures and videos of people receiving their houses and crying and praising God with gratitude. Each house only costs $850. Our team feels called to sponsor and build a house this week so a group will be going back on Tuesday. It only takes a day to build a house! The team got to meet the mother and child they will be building the house for.

“M” has a long list of people in need and he tells me he just goes one by one. He would be the first to tell you that it is all by the grace of God and God gets all the glory.

In one of the photos, you can see the guys loading furniture in to the roof of the bus. Our guys were cleaning out a house for renovations and putting it by the trash dump. “M” said that this furniture is GOLD to people in the village. We loaded it up and left it in a storage area next to the church for the pastor to give out as needed.

(The man in white is 99 years old! He lived in the back of the village and hadn't heard about the food distribution. We loaded him up on the bus and delivered bags of food to his house. Upon arrival to his home, we met his wife who was blind, deaf, and mute. We were able to pray for God's peace to fill her)

When we arrived back at the orphanage mid-afternoon, Caleb got busy mixing more concrete and hauling extra materials down the hill to a home that was being renovated. The rest of the team started preparations on the skit and activities for the NYE eve party we would be hosting the following evening.

Comments

Day 1 - Surprise!

We are deeply saddened that one of our teammates became very ill and her and her husband can no longer join us on the mission trip. They have spent countless hours in meetings and preparations and our hearts are broken. A few hours after we found out this news, Caleb said, “Maybe Timmy and I should go?” An hour after that we were changing names on the airline tickets and doing laundry and they joined the team! God is full of surprises. I would never in a million years imagine this would have happened. I’m so excited to have our whole family serving together again! We have landed in Miami and are waiting for our connecting flight. Praise God for travel mercies!

Day 2

We were able to get started on projects today. Some of the team worked on building some reinforcement walls for the canal/water system which involved mixing lots of concrete by hand. The mixer was broken but one of our handy team members was able to get it fixed after a few hours. It’s so cool to see how the gifts of different people become highlighted on trips like these. Our family worked on painting some of the classrooms. They needed it!!! After lunch, we were invited by some house parents to their home because they wanted to pray for us before they leave. Their family’s last day will be December 31st and we have grown to be dear friends. Casa Bernabe will not be the same without them, but that’s how life goes, right? The ministry will continue and a new couple will carry on loving the boys in that house. Please pray for the transition for boys in the house and our friends who are starting a new chapter. We were so touched that THEY wanted to pray for US. This is just one shining e...

Day 3

These children are “Jesus with skin on.” They don’t care if you are tall, short, American, Guatemalan, fat, skinny, young, or old. They will walk right up to you, give you a hug, and take you by the hand as if you’ve been friends forever. We were able to attend church with the community here and it is always an uplifting time of hearing God’s Word. After church we had lunch and the team split into two groups - one to continue painting the school and the other to sort donations. I joined the donations group and the rest of my family was painting. The missionary liaison has a list of the needs for specific houses so we laid the clothing out in order and fulfilled their “orders.” Most of what YOU donated is going directly to a child and we will probably see them wearing the items tomorrow. It’s kinda cool. Our team raised some extra funds this year so we will be able to purchase the remaining needs at Walmart before we leave. I didn’t take a single picture today, but that’s a good thing b...

Guatemala 2024/25

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